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Women's History Month

Last year for Women’s History Month, we posted a short bibliography of guides for finding your female ancestors as well as other published material on women and all aspects of women’s history.

This year we’d like to point out a few of the Newberry manuscript collections which document the lives of some fascinating women.

Lundgren, Harriet, 1905-1996. Papers, 1917-1991, bulk 1920-1938. Lundgren danced as a prima ballerina for the Chicago Civic Ballet in the 1920s and 1930s, and was a featured dancer at the Century of Progress Chicago World’s Fair of 1933-1934. Her four career scrapbooks contain clippings, programs, and other ephemera related to her dancing career. The collection also includes autographed photographs of dancers, opera singers, and other celebrities collected by Lundgren. Photograph subjects include Adolph Bolm, Walter Camryn, Feodor Chaliapin, Amelita Galli-Curci, Mary Garden, Anna Ludmila, Ruth Page, Rosa Raisa, and others.

MacDonald, Hazel. Hazel MacDonald Papers, 1928-1967. Chicago-based journalist and foreign correspondent in Europe during World War II, MacDonald had a brief career as a Hollywood screenwriter but later moved back to her native Chicago to work for the Chicago American.. She was married to fellow foreign correspondent Robert J. Casey from 1946 until Casey’s death in 1962. This collection consists of a small amount of correspondence, biographical materials, newspaper clippings, foreign dispatches, and other works.

Wingreen, Amy Eleanor, 1870-1919. Amy E. Wingreen Papers, 1898-ca. 1900. Material relating to Amy E. Wingreen’s service as a nurse in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Consists of correspondence from Wingreen to her mother, sister, and nephew, memorabilia, photographs, a scrapbook of clippings and official letters and two manuscript narratives recounting her experiences.